To help readers of The Choice navigate this often complex part of the financial aid process, we have invited Mark Kantrowitz, the publisher of FinAid.org and FastWeb.com, to answer select reader questions about the Fafsa in the blog’s Guidance Office, a forum for college applicants and their families seeking expert advice.

In this fourth installment of answers, Mr. Kantrowitz responds to questions about how parents should complete the Fafsa if they are divorced, remarried, or single; how to report the financial obligations of caring for a child with special needs; the definition of need-based aid, and whether students with scholarships should apply for this aid; and what happens to a student’s financial aid after her freshman year of college.

Some questions, and answers, below have been edited, including for length and style. — Tanya Abrams

Divorced, Remarried and Single Parents

Q.

How do parents who have 50-50 custody and are both remarried with new children with their new spouses file the Fafsa?— Rebecca Joseph

A.

When a student’s parents are divorced, only one parent is responsible for completing the Fafsa. If this parent has remarried, the step-parent’s information must also be reported on the Fafsa.

The parent responsible for completing the Fafsa is the one with whom the student lived the most during the 12 months ending on the Fafsa application date. If the child lived equally with both parents, then the parent who provided more support is responsible for completing the Fafsa. If the parents provided the same amount of support, then the college financial aid administrator gets to choose, and they almost always will chose the set of parents with the greater income.

Q.

How do we fill out the Fafsa if there is only one known parent, as in, only one parent listed on the birth certificate?

— kaw

A.

If there is only one parent listed on the birth certificate, only that parent completes the Fafsa. However, if this parent is now married, the step-parent’s income and asset information must also be reported on the Fafsa.

Q.

In my case, my father was wealthy and my mother had a very limited income. Unfortunately, my father was not willing to contribute to my college education.

The Fafsa required information from both parents since they shared custody. Not surprisingly, my father’s data painted an inaccurate picture regarding how my education would be paid for. How can this predicament be avoided?

— Logan Ashcraft

A.

Why should the federal government have a greater responsibility to pay for your college education than your father?

Caring for Children With Special Needs

Q.

I have a special-needs child, which makes it necessary for me to stay at home to care for her. She will likely need long-term financial support. Does this type of situation get addressed somehow in the Fafsa? Her brothers will be off to college shortly.

— Julie

A.

Ask the colleges for a professional judgment review. Having high childcare costs for a special needs child is an example of a unusual circumstance that can be considered for an adjustment.

Defining Need-Based Aid

Q.

Being new to the United States college system, can you tell me if Fafsa applications are to qualify for loans or aid that does not need to be repaid? I am not exactly sure what the term “need-based financial aid” means.

— Annette Oconnor

A.

An student’s financial need is the difference between the total cost of attending a college and the student’s expected family contribution (E.F.C.) toward paying for college. The E.F.C. is calculated by a complicated formula based on the data reported in the student’s Fafsa.

The federal government, state government, and most colleges provide financial aid to students based on their financial need. The Fafsa is used to apply for this need-based financial aid, which includes grants (money that does not need to be repaid), education loans (money that must be repaid, often with interest) and student employment (money that must be earned).

Scholarships vs. Need-Based Aid

Q.

If I won my school’s presidential scholarship and it is more than I think I will get in financial aid, should I still fill out the Fafsa and apply for need-based aid?

— Jane

A.

Unless you’ve worked in a college financial aid office for a decade and can do hand-calculations of expected family contributions in your sleep, you should still file the Fafsa to apply for need-based financial aid. Students and parents often underestimate eligibility for need-based financial aid. If the scholarship actually exceeds your financial need, you will still be able to get the Unsubsidized Stafford and Parent PLUS loans to pay for your remaining share of college costs.

Financial Aid After Freshman Year

Q.

When a student is entering her second or subsequent year of college, can she expect to receive similar aid to what she received her freshman year? Our daughter will be a sophomore next year, and our income is slightly higher than last year’s (perhaps about $6,000 higher). But, of course, the cost of college has also gone up.

Also, if the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE was needed for freshman year, is it usually needed for all four years? I understand the Fafsa is needed all four years. Thanks.

— mary

A.

About half of all colleges practice front-loading of grants, in which the proportion of grants to loans in the financial aid package is higher during the freshman year than during subsequent years. So the net price will increase.

The argument in favor of front-loading of grants is to ensure that students who drop out during the freshman year are left with as little debt as possible. Students who drop out are four times more likely to default on their loans than students who graduate.

But realistically, front-loading of grants is a form of bait and switch. Some colleges have a self-help level which requires the first several thousand dollars of financial need to be met with student loans and student employment, and only above the self-help level will the financial aid be in the form of institutional grants. So if the student’s financial need is well above the self-help level, a reduction in need might translate into a loss of only institutional grants. But every college has a different packaging philosophy, so the actual impact of a change in income will vary from college to college.

Mr. Kantrowitz is no longer taking questions. However, if you would like to continue to discuss the Fafsa and financial aid, please feel free to do so using the comment box below.

I found your response to the question posed by Logan Ashcraft to be sarcastic and unhelpful, considering that there are numerous high school students in the same situation. If you chose to include his question in those addressed in your column, then you owed him a more serious and less flippant answer.

I understand from reading these questions and answers (which was very helpful) that I should contact the schools for a professional judgment review given an unusual situation that exists for us. I just want to clarify…am I supposed to contact all the schools that my son has applied to now? And if those schools also required the CSS form, which allowed for an explanation of this situation, do I need to reach out so the situation is included in the FAFSA assessment?

Please remember that some of these posts are from kids around 17 years old. I agree with a previous poster that your response to Logan Ashcraft was a snippy response to an honest question. Assuming she already has a jerk of a Dad, she doesn’t need a jerky response as well. At least you could reassure her that others are in the same situation and point her to helpful resources. Thank you.

Why so mean to poor Logan? The kid is caught between a rock and a hard place, and is hoping for some guidance and options. The fact life (and financial aid) can be unfair, and he may be on the hook for his own college education, but how about a little empathy?

My niece is enrolled in college. During her first semester she lived with her mother and stepfather and she used their income for the Fafsa. However, this semester she had to rent a room from her grandparents. She has come to me to ask how to fill out her Fafsa papers and I am not sure how to go about it since we no longer have the parents’ income. What can she do? Any help will be appreciated.

I thought the response to Logan Ashcraft’s question was incredibly unhelpful. If a child only has contact/a relationship with one parent, why should their other parent be taken into consideration?
Your response to the student who only has one parent listed on the birth certificate (only the identified parent is counted, unless they are remarried) was kinder, even though both students are in essentially the same situation (one parent who supports them, one who doesn’t). Just because a student knows who their father is, it doesn’t mean that that parent will be supporting them in any way.
My close friend’s father left the family when she was 12, never paid child support, and in fact left the country to avoid having his wages garnished. Yet colleges still expected him to contribute to her college education, and to provide his financial information for her forms. She was unable to get financial aid for this reason. Essentially, she was punished for having a terrible dad. The FAFSA assumes all parents are equally responsible and willing to pay for their child’s education, which is not the case.

Mr. Kantrowitz’ flippant response to Logan reveals a major flaw in our institutional thinking. Parents are the uncontested responsible parties for the education of our children. Our financial aid system starts from this point.

This premise, however, ignores the societal implications. Education is not merely an individual commodity, but a societal good, which improves our social and economic well-being as a nation.

Public K-12 education is an admission of the premise that education improves the common good. Our country would be well served to re-evaluate and re-design its thinking about the value, and the funding, of higher education.

The ongoing current price escalation has created a crisis, one that will hopefully lead us toward a more egalitarian approach to the funding of higher ed. People deserve the education that matches their capacity for complex thinking and problem solving. That is the end to which our education should be used, and we, as a society, owe it to all our members to extend this education to all.

With the current unemployment rate and a higher likelihood of layoffs, we have decided that we cannot jeopardize our financial future paying for the bulk of college for our three children. Our kids have been excellent students. The first will be attending college in the fall. She has received close to the top grants and has selected schools that are more reasonable in cost. She has wisely decided how much she is willing to pay per year based on whAt she can expect to earn. Going in ridiculous debt is not an option. I do not feel like we are rotten parents and in fact, we are teaching life lessons. I also agree the flip response to that child was wrong. If someone took the time to ask for help, help should have been offered. Perhaps you are correct but it could have been handled better.

Mr. Kantrowitz should be commended for his honesty. It is not the government or school’s problem if one or both parents are not willing to contribute to a child’s education. He doesn’t make the policy, so why should he enter into a debate over it?

Meanwhile, he’s quite honest about the tendency of expensive private colleges to bait-and-switch their financial aid packages. I think every private school parent I know has faced this, and the parents and children would have made a different choice if they had known about it up front.